ERIS
The door clicked shut with a finality that seemed to echo through the hollowed-out bones of the north wing.
Aldric was the last to linger, offering Soren a look that was devoid of his usual bureaucratic detachment, a gaze heavy with the unspoken weight of what was being asked of a man who had already given everything to the day.
Then, the latch caught, and the room emptied of everyone but the two of us.
The maps remained spread across the table, their edges curling in the draft, and the candles had burned down to guttering stubs of wax.
Outside, the world was already trying to mend itself; I could hear the rhythmic clatter of stone being cleared and the distant, barked orders of foremen.
Aldric was efficient, if nothing else. The world was continuing, indifferent to the fact that my own was currently anchored to a wooden bench, feeling as brittle as scorched parchment.
I sat still, exactly where they had forced me to sit under the guise of medical necessity.
